They would have had to take the second landing track for me to see it and it would have had to have been less cloudy.

but did anyone get to see it fly over today?

No, dang it, I didn't know it was going over us or I would have been looking. That would have been so neat.

I heard a sonic boom, which our area news said we might hear. Didn't get to see it though.

Many years ago, one of the shuttles landed in California. Then it had to "flown" back to Florida. It came piggy-back on a 747, and had to do a pit stop at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. I was working on the top floor of a 22 story building - the plane with shuttle atop flew right past our conference room windows. It was so close we could see the burn marks from re-entry. With binoculars we could see it on the runway at the air base. One of the neatest experiences I've ever had.

Not this time around; the last time we were able to view the shuttle after it had disconnected from the space station and could easily see (without binoculars) the two of them lined up one behind the other. The evening was very clear and we knew from a news broadcast when and where to look into the evening sky. This was very impressive and once I got the binoculars the viewing was even better.

Peter1

I get to see the shuttle, the saturn v rocket, and an sr-71 almost every day. Of course they are located at the space and rocket center just off I-565 in Huntsville, AL.

Did you ever see the SR-71 launch? And I use the word launch instead of take-off because it was quite an event to behold. Back in 1976 my Marine squadron spent two months at Kadena AFB on Okinawa. They had a detachment of SR-71's there. Amazing thing to see. They'd start it up inside a hangar and then it would roll out with security and support vehicles around it - sort of like when the astronauts go to the launch pad. The crew wore space suits. That thing would get about half-way down the runway with afterburner flame cones about 50 feet long, then it would rotate and go what seemed like straight up, and it would be gone.

We always knew when they were going to launch a "habu" because a couple hours prior to it they would send out a couple KC-135's to refuel it. It took that long for the tankers to get on station where the habu would need them.

Here is a good video of the SR-71.

One more thing! On the last operational flight of the SR-71, it set another speed record and was piloted by a graduate of the University Of North Alabama.

Why did they scrap her?

Operational costs were high, and they were cannibalizing other airplanes to keep a few flying since replacement parts were really not easily available. Another huge factor was spy satellite technology had advanced to the point that the SR-71 was no longer considered state-of-the-art. Something the pilot on that last flight must have laughed about as he made it from the west coast to the east coast in 68 minutes. Think about that! It was an average speed of 2,124.51 mph.

I used to work near Ellington AFB south of Houston. They have f14s and f16s and frequently scramble them on test and training runs. They did it for real 9/11. The pilots have to keep so many hours of fly time they were very common. They are also an amazing sight especially when they do as Dave described and go nose up. They can fly vertical and disappear in seconds. Once saw a stealth right after take off from Ellington as well. They're not stationed there (that I know if) so it must have been something unusual, re-fueling perhaps on a stop during re-deployment somewhere.

Cheers, Neil

quote:

Did you ever see the SR-71 launch?

Yes, once, when I was living in Hawaii back in the mid to late 60s! Didn't know what it was until later when a friend stationed at Hickam told me what I had seen/heard! He also commented about their routine - landing and taxiing directly into the hanger and having the hanger doors closing just as it cleared the doors and then leaving the same way.

When I was in the USAF, sitting at my satellite infared scope, I would see the SR-71. Only when it hit it's afterburners. Mostly, flying in northern europe/scandinavia. Back then, the late 80's, the Berlin Wall was still up. When I would see it, I would think, "there you are you sneaky devil". Anyways, I also got to see us shoot down a libyan mig, at least on scope. That was cool, not so cool for the libyan mig pilot. Talking about technology being old. I found out they don't even have my job anymore, they have combined it with something else. They didn't tell me, they probably would of had to kill me. Lil' Lori

Hi ChucksOK, haven't seen you post in a while. Glad you're still OK. I can't believe over 2000mph, talk about a rush. What was the G force? Lil' Lori, bet it didn't stay on your scope very long, blip and she was gone.

I remember being in remote (island in the Bearing Sea) Alaska in the 60's and seeing something high up in the sky heading from Russia toward mainland Alaska at a rate of speed that I could hardly keep up with it on the horizon. Wonder what that was, perhpas a U-2? We were there watching and listening. listening and watching.

Peter1

I saw AF-1 once, but not the shuttle. I was awoken by the sonic boom that fateful day in 2003 here in Texas. We thought the cats had knocked something down and it woke us up. I went back to sleep but the wife got up and turned on the TV and found what had happened.

I've had the Bell (V-22?) Osprey fly over a few times, both in horizontal and vertical modes. (Bell Helicopter is in our area).

Still love the Ford Tri-motor (Tin Goose) that I flew in once as a kid.

Chuck

I've had an odd relationship over my life with the Goodyear blimp(s). In 1971, one of the blimps spent a week in my town of Hudson, NY, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a local Goodyear tire store. It would fly every night with the light board showing ads. The little airport it used was just a couple miles from my house and I'd hang out there during the day watching them service it. I even got a tour of the gondola.

Flash forward 23 years and I'm in Alabama. One day I hear a vaguely familiar droning noise and it's getting louder. I go outside and a Goodyear blimp is flying directly over my house at a "really" low altitude - it was maybe 500 feet. Strange.

We get to see the Guppy fly in to Huntsville every so often. It comes by to pick up space shuttle stuff at the Marshall Space Flight Center. They say it flies great but it sure looks like those engines are small!

I don't want to get into Air Force One! I saw it last year but could care less after the way the Secret Service treated us Browns Ferry employees during Bush's visit to the plant. The prisoners at the Super Max in Colorado have more freedom than we did that day.

I don't ever see the Space Shuttle flying over, but boy do I hear it !

I live in Orlando, Florida where I can hear the twin sonic booms of the Space Shuttle when it comes in for a landing. They sound like two loud, nearly simultaneous explosions from a professional sized firework shell bursting overhead. Maybe just with a little more of the lower bass frequency which rattles any small items in your house like picture frames, small knick-knacks, etc.

When I first heard it, a few years ago, it was around 3AM and I was sound-asleep. It startled me so bad I almost fell-out of bed.

This most recent time, I slept right through it. My mother says she heard the sonic booms around 9AM.

Frase, We heard the sonic boom the other morning at 9:02 AM in cape Coral. You heard it as far north as Orlando?